


Tug You Closer

by Susannah (realismandromance)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Domestic, Established Relationship, Fluff, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Introspection, M/M, Pneumonia, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-22 15:26:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9614033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/realismandromance/pseuds/Susannah
Summary: In which Dan suffers from pneumonia and Phil suffers from a guilty conscience.





	

**Author's Note:**

> 'Tug You Closer' was originally titled 'pneumonia' and written for **meglester** as part of the [Dan and Phil Secret Santa 2016](http://danandphilsecretsanta.tumblr.com/post/155597006205/pneumonia). This is the revised and beta-read version (thanks, [samtropolis](http://phantropolis.tumblr.com)!).
> 
> As usual, any warnings can be found in the notes at the end.
> 
> [Read/like/reply/reblog on Tumblr here!](http://realismandromance.tumblr.com/post/156923057006/tug-you-closer)

Dan had pneumonia.

_You should have known,_ said the little voice in Phil’s head. It was easy enough, in retrospect, to see all the signs and put them together. The cold Dan had picked up from someone after the tour – _it could have been from anyone_ , Dan had said, and Phil had _agreed_ ; the racking cough that stuck in Dan’s throat; the lack of energy he tried to hide; the loss of appetite that should have set off warning bells.

However, Phil had deemed none of this seriously worrying. None at all.

‘D’you think I should go to the doctor?’ Dan had asked, his eyes wide and watery. ‘Because I haven’t had a cough this bad in ages.’ He wheezed, rubbed his chest and winced. ‘And I’m really fucking sick of it.’

Phil smiled at the unintentional pun, and frowned when Dan did not follow suit. ‘People get coughs all the time, though. We’ve got some syrup in the cupboard; have you been taking it?’

‘Finished it this morning,’ Dan mumbled, coughing again.

‘I’ll get you some more,’ Phil said decidedly. And he _did_ remember to get more the next time he went out. When he came back with a few bottles of cough syrup, he found Dan curled up in Phil’s bed, the duvet wrapped around him like a burrito. There was sweat on his forehead and his skin was hot to the touch.

_He’ll be over it in a few days,_ Phil told himself, and dismissed it.

* * *

In a few days, contrary to Phil’s dismissal, Dan’s cough was worse than ever.

‘I’m going to the doctor,’ he told Phil, who didn’t try to argue this time. Arguing with a sick Dan was like arguing with a roundabout. Besides, he couldn’t deny that Dan _had_ sounded like a frog in their latest gaming video. If Dan went to the doctor, maybe he would get well faster and they could film another _Undertale_ episode.

When Dan came home, Phil met him downstairs, curious as to what the doctor had had to say.

In Dan’s words? _Fucking pneumonia_.

The climb up the stairs exhausted Dan, even with Phil’s help, so there were no glowering looks, no _I-told-you-so_ ’s. However, Phil couldn’t have felt more guilty.

He knew Dan was twenty-five and could take care of himself, but Phil’s conscience was far from assuaged. _So stupid,_ he thought bitterly, _to tell him not to go to the doctor because you thought he’d be wasting the doctor’s time!_ Thank goodness Dan had decided to go anyway, that was for sure. From Phil’s scant knowledge of the infection, pneumonia was serious business. To think that the doctor had asked Dan if he'd started coughing blood yet! (Thankfully, no.)

When they reached the top of the stairs at last, Dan was red-faced and gasping, and he leant slightly on Phil.

‘Hey,’ he croaked, and his eyes met Phil’s guilty ones. ‘It’s not your fault.’ He coughed, doubling over with pain, and Phil winced further. ‘Phil, I can hear you worrying.’

‘I’m not!’ Phil lied.

‘You’re always worrying,’ Dan mumbled. The illness seemed to be letting him speak his thoughts uninhibited. ‘It’s what you do.’

Phil couldn’t deny that.

* * *

After hearing Dan’s diagnosis, Phil couldn’t sit still. When it became late afternoon, he shut himself in the kitchen and spent an hour cooking a dinner he was proud of, belatedly remembering that Dan had little appetite and would probably prefer something to soothe his throat instead.

Phil cautiously pushed open his bedroom door and found that Dan was asleep. A sticky note on the night-table beside him read, in an awful chicken scratch:

> _I’ve taken my medicine and I wasn’t hungry phil stop worrying so much_

Phil ate dinner alone and decided that it was for the best. Those coughs had kept Dan up before. He was just glad his boyfriend could get some much-deserved respite.

* * *

‘Oh my God, Phil, I’m not going to break.’

Phil rubbed his temple. ‘Dan, you literally have _pneumonia_! Remember the video? Playing Pokémon GO with pneumonia is a bad idea. You’ll make it even worse.’

‘You can’t stop me going out!’ But coughs punctuated Dan’s words.

‘I will make you stay in bed if it means I have to stay next to you all day.’

A dimpled grin from Dan told Phil he’d been trapped. ‘So we’re watching anime all day, then?’

Phil tried to resist the temptation, but his resolve broke. ‘Okay, just today.’

The angelic smile Dan gave him almost absolved Phil from his nagging guilt at leaving various projects unfinished. _Almost_.

* * *

The upside? Pneumonia wasn’t contagious, so Dan could breathe on Phil as much as he wanted. But there were times when Dan’s fever swelled and he grew hot and cranky, snapping at the ever-patient Phil. Once, late at night, he was moody and melancholy.

‘’M sorry I’m keeping you up,’ he mumbled into Phil’s neck.

‘It’s okay,’ said Phil automatically. It reminded him of an earlier conversation, before they knew it was pneumonia: _I don’t want to make you sick,_ Dan had said, feebly pulling away from Phil’s arms, and Phil had tugged him closer and said, _it’s okay_.

‘I’m sorry too,’ Phil whispered. ‘I shouldn’t have told you not to see the doctor.’

‘’S not your fault,’ Dan said sleepily, watching Phil with irrepressible fondness.

This time, Phil was able to believe Dan’s words.

* * *

About a week later, Dan had recovered. Slowly, surely, they got back into the swing of things, filming long videos again and eating dinner together without one of them pushing his plate aside or gulping eight pills a day. Back to the breakfast anime and the other daily, comfortable habits that made up Dan and Phil. Sure, Dan had only been sick for two weeks at the very most, but it had felt like a lot longer. Phil hated seeing Dan sick, and now he couldn’t stop being plagued by thoughts of doom. There was less than a month to go until their Australian tour. Would Dan be fully recovered by then – sleep deprivation and other side effects included?

Time enough to worry about that later. Now, Phil leant into Dan, not watching the anime on the TV in front of them, but studying his boyfriend’s face.

‘I’m glad you’re better.’

Dan smiled and pressed a quick kiss to Phil’s lips. ‘So am I. Those coughs were a bitch. Now, if you’d stop worrying so much all the time …’

Phil laughed, burying his nose in Dan’s shoulder. ‘We’ll see.’

**Author's Note:**

> **I've rated it G, but there is a bit of swearing, so consider yourself warned.**
> 
> Please leave a comment if you are able!
> 
> [Read/like/reply/reblog on Tumblr here!](http://realismandromance.tumblr.com/post/156923057006/tug-you-closer)


End file.
